


im not letting go

by uforock



Series: runaway runaway [4]
Category: Count Duckula
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-27 09:47:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21390136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uforock/pseuds/uforock
Summary: Love and routines and arms and falling into them.(Duckula and Goosewing talk and watch the sunset.)
Relationships: Count Duckula/Dr. Von Goosewing
Series: runaway runaway [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1536979
Comments: 12
Kudos: 61





	im not letting go

**Author's Note:**

> https://youtu.be/wjvtD4DNN0E  
people will be like "who is she out here writing these fics for anyway who wants to read this" and the answer is me and me alone every single time  
also theyre also both trans but this is only vaguely touched upon.

They’d been travelling for a few weeks now, and had all too easily fallen into a simple routine. Making breakfast together, Goosewing heading into the lab and Duckula wandering around the ship and keeping himself busy. More often than not, that entailed him singing to himself and drawing and writing in his diary.

Goosewing hated to admit how much he had grown accustomed to the sound of Duckula’s singing voice. Smooth and melodic and warm, it never faded into the background but never left him feeling overwhelmed, either.

Goosewing had been a little apprehensive at first when Duckula started unpacking his instruments, but once he actually started playing, he might have started to realize  _ why  _ Duckula was so enamored with the idea of music as a whole.

It influenced  _ everything _ . 

So when Duckula started singing sad songs, it made Goosewing’s stomach ache. The emotion behind his voice hit him like a punch, and he eventually had to stop tinkering and get up, finding Duckula sitting with his legs dangling over the edge of the ship.

They were hovering a few feet above the surface of the ocean. Every once in a while, a wave would go high up enough to brush the bottoms of his feet, as if the sea was trying to reach out and comfort him as he sang and sang and sang, the strange cacophony of the water crashing around him like a symphony.

His song was so, so sad, and he didn’t stop singing when Goosewing sat next to him with a concerned look on his face. He only trailed off when Goosewing’s pinky finger brushed against his, and he faded off, staring down at the way the sun sparkled harshly against the water.

They linked their fingers together and Goosewing felt his heart begin to pick up speed.

“...I think that I might be homesick, Goosewing.”

Goosewing looked at him for a moment, but Duckula stayed looking out at the water. 

“I don’t wanna go back, but… I wonder if they miss me. Or if they really care that I’m gone. I mean…”

He pulled one leg up, wrapping his other arm around it, leaving the one Goosewing was touching where it was. 

“They always wanted me to be someone else. Someone I  _ can’t  _ be, not really. I want to live my  _ own _ life, not one that was laid out for me by the people that  _ used _ to call themselves by my name!”

He took a deep breath, like he was about to say more, but after a long moment he exhaled, kicking at the water with his foot. Goosewing stared at the waves, at the warped mirror image of himself staring back at him, and at the empty space where Duckula’s reflection would have been. Where it  _ should  _ have been. 

“I don’t know how to be them. I was made wrong- made  _ different _ . I can’t be the person I was  _ supposed  _ to be. The  _ vampire _ everyone expects me to be. If I do go back… I know all I’ll be is a let down. Like, I know they love me and everything, but they still want me to be someone else.”

Duckula tilted his head, looking at Goosewing. “Do you ever feel like that…? Like… you know people love you, but you also know they’d love you a  _ whole lot _ more if you changed literally everything about yourself? Even if you were lying about who you were? Even if it made you unhappy?”

Goosewing gave a small laugh at the end, nodding and scooting closer to him. 

“I do. Maybe… not the same way, but I do understand what you mean. I am not exactly the family success, either, you know.”

“You’re kiddin’! You? The greatest vampire hunter in the world?” Duckula scooted closer, resting his head against Goosewing’s shoulder.

Goosewing pouted, reaching behind him and flipping his cape up over his head. Duckula spluttered and waved his arms, knocking it back in its place dramatically while Goosewing tried to muffle his laughter behind his hand.

“Rude!”

Duckula was laughing too though, his smile sincere and  _ alive  _ and bubbly, and it made warmth swell like the tides in Goosewing’s chest. He kept that arm around Duckula’s back, under his cape now, keeping him secure.

Duckula calmed down and cuddled up against him, leaning into his chest. Their legs knocked together as they dangled over the edge of the ship.

“...They didn’t  _ want _ an inventor. They didn’t expect me to be a  _ man _ either, but that is a different story entirely. I hoped that by following the family legacy and becoming a vampire hunter, they might be more proud of me, but… Well,” he gestured to the way they were pressed close against each other, clearly the antithesis of what a vampire hunter intended to do. “I was not exactly good at that either.”

Goosewing could hear the smile in Duckula’s voice as he spoke. “Geez… How did we ever think we worked better as enemies?”

Goosewing felt himself blushing, not entirely sure why. “Eh… Obligation?”

“Somethin’ like that,” he wiggled in place. “Do you like this better?”

Goosewing sighed, resting his head on top of Duckula’s. “I… am not entirely sure what  _ this _ is.”

“You don’t have to be. I know I’m not,” he laughed, trailing off, “But… I  _ like  _ this. Being with you is  _ easy _ . I don’t have to pretend to be anyone I’m not,” he said, voice half muffled by Goosewing’s coat. Goosewing was sure Duckula could feel how fast his heartbeat was, thudding in his chest erratically. 

He thought back over the last few weeks, the natural rhythm they’d fallen into, weaving in and out of each other’s presence like it was something they’d been doing for years. In a way, it was, but it was much more deliberate then. Now it was merely second nature.

“I…”

He thought back to being alone.

He thought back to nights spent electrocuting himself on faulty wiring in his lab, to speaking to an assistant that had  _ long _ since resigned, to the hours spent wandering the castle when he had refused to let himself admit that he hoped and hoped and hoped that he might run into one of its inhabitants, just to talk to somebody. 

He thought back to a million and one excuses he gave himself to press on talking to the strange person whom he had just met, a different one each time, but with a  _ strangely familiar _ quality about them that never failed to fascinate him.

(He thought back to a blue dress, and an oddly cool hand pressed against his lips, and dark eyes, and a lovely laugh-)

He thought back to how it was getting harder and harder to mask his disappointment that Duckula had revealed himself at the end of their encounters.

He no longer had to pretend, did he? 

“Yes.”

Duckula breathed against him, closing his eyes. They sat there for a while, Duckula soaking up his warmth like a cat in the sun, the ocean filling the air with a soft white noise.

“...We can always come back, once we have settled down,” Goosewing said, bringing a hand up and letting it hover above Duckula’s head. Duckula leaned back into it, eyes closed still. 

Duckula hummed. “That sounds nice… both coming back, and settling down, I mean.”

Goosewing blushed again, realizing the implications of his words. “Only if- only if you  _ wanted _ that, that is. With me, I mean.”

“Hey,” Duckula said, and there was a hand on his cheek, tilting Goosewing’s head so that they were making eye contact. Suddenly, breathing and thinking both felt very difficult, in an oddly good way. “I just said it sounded nice, there’s no need to backpedal,” he smiled.

Goosewing’s head felt fuzzy.  _ I could kiss him _ , he thought, glancing down at his mouth and then back up.  _ It would be so easy. He’s so close. _

And then Duckula leaned in and kissed  _ him _ , brief and gentle and hardly a kiss at all, but it still was more than enough to make Goosewing breathless.

Duckula pulled back, looking into his eyes before pressing his forehead to Goosewing’s collarbones and hugging him close, and Goosewing barely registered his own arms wrapping around Duckula, one of his hands burying itself into his dark hair.

“That’s what we’ll do, then. Come back when we’re ready,” Duckula said, and Goosewing nodded.

“Together,” Goosewing mumbled. Duckula shifted, pressing his head further against Goosewing’s chest. “...Are you listening for my heartbeat?”

“Mhmm,” Duckula nodded. “I like it. You’re warm.”

Goosewing hummed and let him, rubbing his back with one hand and playing with his hair with the other.

**Author's Note:**

> remember to comment if you liked this!! (:


End file.
